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Why the Royal baby is more likely to be a girl

Severe morning sickness, the baby’s father in the airforce: both signs Kate has a greater chance of a daughter than a son!

Bookies are shortening the odds that the Duchess of Cambridge's baby will be a girl. So is there any scientific evidence backing up that claim? And can we really predict gender without looking at a scan?

Although the UK’s male birth rate is slightly higher than female – 105.1 male births to 100 female – there are said to be a few reasons why the Duchess of Cambridge is slightly more likely to have a girl than a boy.

The first is the severe morning sickness she suffered from – hyperemesis gravidarum. Research at the University of Washington found that women who suffer from this condition have higher odds of being pregnant with a girl. The cause of the sickness is thought to be due to high levels of oestrogen in utero.

William’s job is another reason people are convinced it’s a girl. A study in the Norwegian Journal of Epidemiology looked at the gender of children fathered by pilots and found that pilots had slightly more female than male children. This study was later repeated in Germany but the same result was not found.

Would you consider Kate’s job stressful? A study undertaken at the University of Calgary, Canada, found that women with jobs categorised as “high stress” are more likely to have a daughter.

The final reason why bookies are betting on a girl is that Kate supposedly let the gender slip on a visit to Grimsby. When a member of the public gave her a teddy bear, Kate reportedly said: “Thank you, I will take that for my d…”